Word of Salvation – Vol. 35 No. 11 – March 1990

 

The Fall Of Babylon

 

Sermon by Rev. J. W. Deenick on Rev. 18:1, 2a and 4a

Reading: Jeremiah 51:1-10; Revelation 18

Singing: 86, 285, 366, 368, 135:3

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

On November 10, 1989, the Berlin Wall came tumbling down.  Did the walls of Babylon come down with it?  That is the question we face in the Christian Church.

It is generally recognised that there was something symbolic about the events of that second Friday in November 1989.  A breach was opened in the Iron Curtain.  Eastern Europe opened its doors, not so much for the West to come in but for them to come out.  In world- historical terms the significance of these events is enormous.

Still, why should we bring this up in the preaching of the Gospel?  We have been bombarded with it in the press and on television.  Why should we have to listen to it from the pulpit as well?  That is not what we come to church for, is it?  We come to church to hear the Gospel preached; the message of our redemption in Christ.  We want to hear sermons about salvation history, not political history.

Yes, indeed.  But this Lord Jesus, about whom we want to hear, is also the King of the nations; and there is a sense in which the history of salvation is still going on all around us; not merely in the life of individuals, also in the life of nations.  Our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom all authority is given in heaven and on earth, is deeply involved in all that happens in the world, also when political walls come down and cultural curtains are rent.  And if that is true, then we as Christ’s followers are involved in it as well.  As a Christian Church we cannot hide in our own ecclesiastical little corner, with our church problems and private concerns.  We are involved in the affairs of the world too; in its moral, social and political conflicts, in the spiritual battle both at a national and at a global level.  We are prophetically involved; we have to speak out on Christ’s behalf.  We have to clarify prophetically what is really happening; what Christ is doing in the affairs of the world, and what He expects from us.

In the press and on television they will not enlighten anyone on the real issues.  Only the Gospel can tell us about that and only the Church preaching the Gospel can tell the world about that.

In recent times we have seen the churches getting involved in the affairs of the nation and of the community in countries like Poland and the Philippines, in South Africa and Eastern Germany.  They may not always have done that in the right manner but in any case the Christian Church has rediscovered its prophetic calling; that it cannot stand aside; that it has to clarify, prophetically, the real issues; that it has to apply the Gospel of Christ and the law of his Kingdom to the needs of the time and place where God has put us.

For instance, in the case of the collapse of the Berlin wall, people have said that it was a victory for freedom and democracy.  But the Church will have to ask: was it also a victory for Jesus Christ?  If it was not, it was not really a victory for freedom either.  Only God’s Son can make us free.

This morning/evening then we want to hear the Gospel from this text about Christ’s victory over Babylon.

First, we need to understand that in this world there always has been, there is and there always will be a Babylon; secondly, we hear how the Lord assures us of his victory over Babylon through the preaching of the Gospel; and finally it says that we must come out of Babylon if we are to share in Christ’s triumph.

John, the apostle, was also a prophet and like all prophets he was called to speak out on God’s behalf about the affairs of the world around him.  John was exiled on a small island off the coast of what is now Turkey.  He was kept there in isolation by the Roman authorities and he must have been tempted to keep his mouth shut on sensitive issues.  But being a prophet with a “great commission” John could not do that.

On the island of Patmos John first of all went out to evangelize.  The small Christian community still living on Patmos claims that it came into existence through John’s outreach with the Gospel.  But he did more.  He continued to be involved in the great issues of the day and he spoke out on them prophetically, with the authority of his apostolic office.  The Lord wanted him to do that.  The Lord gave him visions, revelations and then told him to write it down for the encouragement of the seven churches of Asia Minor.  John had been the spiritual leader of these churches from the centre of the mother-church of Ephesus.  From the first chapter to the last this book of Revelation was meant to enlighten these churches about the real issues of the day and to encourage them.

They faced one colossal problem especially: the hostility of the Roman Empire.  John calls it Babylon but what he had in mind was Rome.

We see that already in chapter 17.  There he speaks of the city built on seven hills.  Rome was that city built on seven hills.  John may have called it Babylon in order to protect himself, but his readers were in no doubt about what he meant.  They knew about Babylon from the writings of the Old Testament prophets.  In those days the city of Babylon and the Babylonian Empire had been the centre of antagonism against Israel.  Under Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian armies had destroyed Jerusalem.  In chapter 11 John calls that Babylonian centre of hostility against God and his people also by other names: Egypt and Sodom; and says that our Lord was crucified there.  But no matter what names were used, for the early Church it was Rome.

From the borders of Scotland in the North, all over Western Europe and Northern Africa, round the Mediterranean and through the Middle East, all the way nearly to India, there was the Roman Empire, kept under control by the Roman legions: one well organised political entity, one common market; a colossus of Roman might and Greek learning; a civilisation as there had never been before.  Even today we are still under its influence.  The very language we speak, the words and expressions we use the world over, taken from Latin and Greek, the notions and ideas we come up with, are inherited to a large degree from that Empire.

In fact the Roman Empire has never been equalled since, at least not in its all- pervasive influence.  Yet, for the early Christians it was Babylon, a concentration of hostility against Christ.

As we can see in chapter 17:5, it is also called the great whore, the mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth.  Rome is pictured as the centre of rebellion against God, the capital of the great spiritual revolution, of idolatry and wickedness.

Mind you, there was something very beautiful and seductive too about Rome, but it wasn’t the beauty of holiness.  It was prostitution in the sense that Rome prostituted God’s gifts, the wealth of God’s creation for its own glory, pleasure and might.  It was counterfeit; it was hollow inside.  It brought no true happiness or justice or peace.

On the one hand there was the luxury, the power and the good life in which the ruling classes shared; the aristocracy, the entrepreneurs, the scholars, the middle classes and the bureaucracy.  They kept the show going, for their own benefit.  But on the other hand there were the poor, the oppressed and the millions and millions of slaves.  In many parts of the Roman world the number of slaves far exceeded that of the free citizens; and more often than not their share in Rome’s wealth and sweet living was totally negative.  For all its pride and pretence the condition in the Roman Empire cried out to heaven because of the cruelty, the immorality and the injustices of the place.  Not to mention its idolatry, especially its worship of the emperor as God.

In order to understand the significance of this Bible book, we need to understand that everywhere and at all times there have been such Babylons.  It began with Cain, the son of Adam and Eve, who built the first city on earth.  Later there was the city Babel where people built a tower that was to reach as high as heaven.  Then there was Egypt, and in the East one empire after another, of the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians and of Alexander the Great.  And in other parts of the world there were Chinese, Indian, African and Inca empires.  Later in Europe, after the collapse of Rome in the Christian era, the Spanish and the Dutch, Napoleon and Britain had their anti-Christian, Babylonian features.

President Reagan once referred to Russia as the evil empire, and he has been ridiculed for it.  Yet we cannot ignore the element of truth in it; except that it was a generalization and it was one-sided.  There are evil aspects to every empire, while some are more evil than others.  It is the prophetic calling of the Church in each particular time and place to point that out as the case may be.

We are here in (Melbourne).  We are not in New York, Moscow or Pretoria.  Our prophetic calling is here.  We have to interpret prophetically the events and conditions of this land at this time; we have to apply the Gospel of Christ and the law of his kingdom to the events and conditions in this country.  That means first of all this, that we will have to say clearly and fearlessly that all power and authority, which is separated from Christ, corrupts.  Whether it is the political power of governments or the financial power of the banking community or the economic power of multi-national companies, when it is separated from Christ, power corrupts.  It becomes Babylonian, anti-Christian, no matter how many free elections you have; no matter how much democracy you have.  Democracy apart from Christ will not save a community from the corruption of power.  Democracy apart from Christ is only another idol.  The rule of the democratic majority can easily become a most wicked tyranny.

Only allegiance to Jesus Christ, the king of humility, the king on an ass, can save a community from the corruption of power.  Only when going in the footsteps of Jesus will national leaders be able to guarantee a measure of freedom, justice and peace.  There is no triumph over Babylon but in and through Jesus Christ.

It says here in the text: “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great”.  John heard it in a vision.  He saw an angel, a messenger, come down from heaven.  He had great authority and shouted with a loud voice.  His message was a prophecy regarding the future.  What John saw in his  vision was primarily about the future.  The fall of Babylon had not occurred yet.  Rome still seemed totally in control.

We cannot ignore, however, that it is the nature of prophecy to speak at the same time of what is already happening now.  To be sure, in its finality the fall of Babylon will occur only at the return of Christ.  Then it will be destroyed totally.  But the foundation has been laid on the cross, when Christ said: ‘It is finished’; and in his resurrection when He triumphed over Satan and death.  From there it began: the destruction of Babylon through the preaching of the Gospel.  For instance when Paul travelled throughout the Roman Empire preaching the Word and when finally in the last chapter of Acts we see him enter the Roman capital, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom unhindered for two years, that already was the dynamite of Christ’s kingdom right at the heart of Babylon.  It was the beginning of Christ’s triumph over that empire.

Now, of course, we could say that sooner or later all empires fall apart, disintegrate because of their inner corruption.  Like all things in this world, in which everything is transitory, so empires pass away.  But that is no solution.  That merely means that one power structure is replaced by another.  Only Christ will triumph over our Babylons, through the preaching of the Gospel.  Only where the Gospel is preached and believed and done will the power of Satan crumble.  Only where in the footsteps of Jesus we come out of Babylon, and break with its idolatries and sins, will we with Jesus triumph over the power structures that surround us.  Over against the might and seduction of Babylon only one power structure prevails, the spiritual power of the King on an ass, the king of love and forgiving grace.  All civilisations and empires will fail in the end, except this one kingdom, the kingdom of Christ, the kingdom of the Sermon on the Mount, the kingdom of the meek, the poor in spirit, the peacemakers and those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

In as far as our present civilisation is still Babylonian (and who could deny that to a large degree it is) it carries the seed of its destruction inside it.  It is hollow and corrupt within.  In as far as our Australian way of life is still Babylonian (no matter how proud we are of our free and multicultural society and our Ocker image) it is rotten inside.  It has failed us and it will fail our children.  The only hope for the nation is Jesus Christ; and the Church of Jesus preaching the Gospel.  Humanly speaking that is a bleak hope, as far as the Church and its preaching is concerned.  In the way it preaches and lives the Gospel, the Australian church is frightfully weak.  As a middleclass Church, quite comfortable in our own little corner, we let the Gospel be ridiculed and the Son of God dishonoured.  We shy away from challenging the nation with Christ’s commandments.  We have become Babylonian in our own little way.

We have not really come out of Babylon.  Many of her sins are our sins too.  Our Australian way of life is not really a Christian way of life.  In fact, it does not seem to make much difference at all whether people are Christians or not.  The predominant concern of all Australians seems to be our welfare and our living standard.  We cherish our privileges and hang on to them till we die.  That is our religion.  That is what we elect governments for.  Whether in Africa people starve or not, we won’t let that interfere with our way of life.  We make donations of sorts (we wouldn’t feel comfortable if we didn’t), but we don’t bring sacrifices, at least not for Africa.  For us too, as for Babylon, charity begins at home.  No wonder then that the Australian Church is weak.  Wherever we look there is disappointment; and there is no reason to cover it up.

But, praise God, Christ is not weak; and if the light shines feebly in one place, He will make it to shine gloriously in another.  If we are reluctant to break with the Babylonian life style, then Christ will create himself a people in other places and they will live by the law and in the spirit of his Kingdom.  Then the church in Korea will do what we are so reluctant to do.  Christ is not weak.  He will triumph over Babylon.

The future is bright.  Our hope is in God; not in the Church; not in you and me.  The Lord God will do it through Jesus Christ.  In the day of reckoning all power-structures that are opposed to Christ will go up in flames; all strongholds of godless learning, of sensuality and greed will go bankrupt and will be wiped out.

Like John, we may look to the future and hear the voice of the angel say: “fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great”.

One day Christ will have dominion.  One day all the nations will bow at his throne; one day all creation his Lordship shall own.

You and I, have we come out of Babylon, that we may share in that triumph?

AMEN